ANZAC: The Western Front
Private Pete Hamilton, recently promoted to Corporal and taken out of Gallipoli after his heroism to capture a Turkish trench (chronicled in The Anzac Legends), has been put into the I ANZAC Corps and is sent to the Western front. After a boring few months, in July 1916 he sees his first major combat action since the Battle of Gallipoli; the Battle of the Somme. Chapter One - The Western Front The fields are not sandy, they are muddy and boring. I have been here for months. No action. None. I've made a few friends, including a French lieutenant, and a British corporal, both of which fought in the major battles of the Western front. Another good friend I have made is a man named Christopher, a captain in the British army. He congratulated me on my "fearless and brave" accomplishments at Gallipoli after he had heard about me by a sergeant in my unit. "Hey, Pete." my British corporal friend, Alfie Williams. "Yeah?" I say. "Trench raid tonight." "Really?" "Yeah. Captain Chris told me to tell you that you, Lt. Beaumont, and a few others, including myself, are going to attack. I'll see you at the reserve trench, where we'll meet." "Alright." He walks off towards where he came from, while I stay where I am. Lt. Bruno Beaumont was the French army lieutenant that I became friends with, and so was Cpl. Alfie Williams. Now I wait until dark, and I am ready to fight. Chapter Two - Trench Raid As the dark begins to appear, we start to crawl through the no-man's-land. We crawl through the no-man's-land and we are scared to death. The German gunners don't see us yet. We take our grenades out, and we wait for four seconds before throwing because of the seven second wait time. BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM! "Go!" I hear Lt. Beaumont yell, and we take out our rifles and charge, hoping we knocked the German gunners out. BRRRRRRRRPBRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRP! "Machine-guns!" Alfie yells. "Grenade! Throw a damn grenade!" a soldier yells. BRRRPCRACKCRACKSNAPSNAPSNAPSNAPSNAPBRRRRPBRRRRRRP! I take out a grenade, and throw if after four seconds. BOOM! The machine-guns stop. "Onwards!" a soldier yells. We jump into the trenches and begin to sweep through them. "Drüben!" a German soldier yells. Then I see him point his rifle at me, along with another German. Then I see one of them fall over and grab their leg. "Meine Bein! Scheiße!" he yells. I have just enough time to bring my rifle up and aim at the other German, who looks at his fallen comrade. CRACK! I get him. The German who was shot in the leg is captured. We keep advancing. Suddenly a German soldier pops out of no where and shoots the man standing next to me. "Aufgeben!" he shouts. He is aiming at me and shouting at me in German. I don't know how to speak German. "Aufgeben!" he shouts again, then he is shot in the head. "I got you, Pete." Alfie says. "Thanks mate!" I say, and we continue to sweep the trenches. "Drüben" I hear. Then CRACK! I am shot. "No! Pete's hit, Pete's hit!" Alfie yells, then he's shot, too. "Alfie..." I say. No answer. "Alfie...!" I say louder. Still no answer. "ALFIE!" I yell. No answer. I begin to cry. "Halten Sie die Gräben! Halten Sie die Gräben!" a German voice thunders. "Fall back!" I hear a soldier yell. "Hah! Dumme Schweine! Retreat wie die Schweine sind Sie!" a German yells. Lt. Beaumont and another French soldier, along with three British riflemen, stay behind, most likely to cover the retreat, then retreat themselves. "Töte die feindlichen Soldaten!" a German soldier yells. "Hold them off!" Lt. Beaumont yells. CRACKCRACKSNAPCRACKCRACKCRACKSNAPCRACK! The three British riflemen begin to retreat, Lt. Beaumont and his fellow Frenchman covering them. "Couvrir la Colombie et de tuer les Allemands!" he yells to his Frenchman. I get up and limp to Alfie's rifle. I pick it up. Lt. Beaumont sees me and waves me over. CRACK! Beaumont's head is blown off. "Beaumont!" I yell. "Vous putain de petits bâtards allemands sales!" the French rifleman yells, then he is shot and killed, too. "Damn it! God damn!" I yell as morning light reveals the Germans surrounding me. A German officer walks up to me. "You may go." he says in perfect English. As soon as he says that, I walk to Alfie, and I take his death letter out of his shirt pocket. Then I go to Beaumont, and I take his death letter. Then I start the long way back to my trench. Chapter Three - The Battle of the Somme I make it back, lumbering, to the trench. Of the twenty that went, only six, including me, came back. Category:War Category:Battle Category:Army